Scion of an Australian dynasty conducted for the whole world

Patricia Maunder

Though based in London for most of his life, Sir Charles Mackerras was regarded in his homeland as one of Australia's finest musical exports, having conducted some of the world's leading orchestras and singers over many years.

Music ran in the family: his great-great-great grandfather, Isaac Nathan, composed the first opera in Australia in 1847. Don John of Austria fell into obscurity until Mackerras orchestrated it for a concert performance conducted by his nephew, Alexander Briger, in 1997.

Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras was born on November 17, 1925, in Schenectady, New York, to Alan Mackerras, an electrical engineer in the US for postgraduate study, and his wife, Catherine MacLaurin. The family returned to Sydney when Charles was three and lived in Vaucluse.

In 1928 a second son, Alistair, was born. Neil followed two years later, about the time his mother suddenly announced her conversion to Catholicism. This shocked her atheist father and husband, and contributed to strained marital relations.

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The Mackerras family moved to then semi-rural Turramurra in 1933. The boys, who were attending St Aloysius College, welcomed a sister, Joan, the following year, and Elizabeth in 1937. Two years later came the twins Malcolm (the election statistician) and Colin (who became a leading China expert; Charles's other high-profile sibling was Alistair, Sydney Grammar's headmaster from 1969 to 1989).

Charles Mackerras began violin lessons at six before switching to piano and flute, was setting poems to music at eight, and wrote a piano concerto aged 12.

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''I always wanted to become a musician,'' he said in 2005. ''It got to be that I was hardly interested in anything else. From about eight or nine I had a sort of mania about it.''

At his father's old school, Sydney Grammar, this ''mania'' prompted Mackerras to wander over to the nearby NSW State Conservatorium of Music (as the Sydney Conservatorium was called) much more often than his twice-weekly music lessons there required. He showed a precocious talent by composing operas and conducting student performances in his early teens but his non-musical studies suffered.

Czech music expert ... Mackerras rehearses a Janacek opera in Brno in 2004.

Unconvinced that music was a viable profession, his parents removed Charles from temptation by sending him to board at The King's School. Its focus on sport and discipline led the young artist to run away several times. He was expelled, and his parents were forced to accept that he would never be a lawyer.

At 16 he returned to the conservatorium full time and took any music-related work he could find, such as writing orchestral scores from recordings (World War II made originals scarce) and performing with 2GB's orchestra. The tax office once sent back his return, not believing someone so young could earn so much.

In 1943 Mackerras joined the ABC Sydney Orchestra (later the Sydney Symphony) as second oboe, the instrument he had focused on after reading of Australia's oboist shortage. Not long after, aged 19, he became principal oboe but knew his future lay elsewhere. ''You grew up knowing it was more or less impossible to make a big career by simply being in Australia,'' he said.

He went to London in 1947, intending to pursue conducting, but within months was in Prague thanks to a chance encounter. While he had been reading a Dvorak score in a cafe, a Czech man sitting nearby said: ''I see you are studying the music of my country.'' He recommended applying for a scholarship sending students to his homeland.

Mackerras was successful, and studied under the conductor Vaclav Talich in Czechoslovakia. With him went his new bride, the clarinetist Judy Wilkins.

Returning to London in 1948, Mackerras soon established himself as a leading interpreter of Czech composers, particularly Janacek. He conducted the British premiere of Janacek's Katya Kabanova in 1951 for Sadler's Wells Opera Company (later the English National Opera, of which he was the director from 1970 to 1978).

Mackerras was associated with many other leading opera companies and orchestras during his long career, including the BBC Concert Orchestra (principal conductor, 1954-56), Welsh National Opera (director, 1987-92) and the Royal Philharmonic (principal guest conductor, 1993-96). From 1982 to 1985 he was the first Australian-born chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony, which he led at the opening concert of the Sydney Opera House's concert hall in 1973.

He also became a regular with the baton at London's Covent Garden - the only company he expressed disappointment in not being appointed to. When the directorship changed hands in 1971 and 1987, he was passed over. ''I don't understand quite why it didn't happen,'' he said.

Also a gifted musicologist, Mackerras was integral to the development of ''authentic'' baroque performance during the 1940s and '50s. He went back to the original scores, and championed the use of period instruments. Significant achievements in this area were his work with the Goldsborough Ensemble (later the English Chamber Orchestra) and a 1959 recording of Handel's Royal Fireworks Music.

Mackerras had a prolific recording career. Among his discography are the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler and Brahms, and the operas of Mozart and Janacek. He was also an expert on Gilbert and Sullivan, Bach, Handel, Schubert, Schumann, Verdi, Martinu, Strauss, Wagner and Britten.

Mackerras often worked with Britten until, in 1958 during rehearsals for Britten's opera Noye's Fludde, he made comments about the composer liking prepubescent boys' company.

From his childhood, Mackerras had had a reputation for being direct and, though maturity and success mellowed his manner, he was always regarded as a hard taskmaster. ''Charles may seem brusque,'' the baritone Simon Keenlyside said when the composer was 80. ''What he's waiting for is you to present him with things and to be able to deliver them. If you can't deliver them, then it'll be irritating to him and he will steamroller you.''

Mackerras remained very active professionally into his 80s. He slowed down in his late 60s, when a shoulder injury threatened to end his career; surgery solved the problem.

He was knighted in 1979, received the Czech Republic's Medal of Merit in 1996, and was made a Companion of the Order of Australia the following year.

He is survived by Judy and their daughter, Catherine. Another daughter, Fiona, died in 2007.